POLL: England 12 Australia 16 – Late call goes against England to set up tantalising final weekend

Frustrated England lost once more to world champions Australia yesterday, continuing an all too common trend, but they were only denied a rare victory by a controversial video referee decision in the final minute of a thrilling Four Nations Test.

Trailing 16-12 in the final seconds at Melbourne, England second-row Liam Farrell dabbed a hopeful grubber through and saw Kangaroos full-back Greg Inglis hesitate behind his own line before apparently scrambling the ball dead.

However, replays showed Leeds Rhinos’ Ryan Hall – who once more enhanced his reputation as the sport’s finest winger – had managed firstly to get his fingertips to it and suddenly the decision was moved “upstairs”.

Referee Gerard Sutton did not award the try and, under National RL rules, the video official – his brother Bernard – had to find sufficient evidence to overturn that.

Despite clear images showing Hall did touch the ball to the ground, after a long deliberation, Sutton deemed it had bounced up to his fingertips and, with no control over it, awarded a 20m restart for the relieved hosts who duly played down the clock to keep their tournament alive.

The importance and contentious nature of the decision made a mockery once more of the decision to have Australian officials in charge of this contest.

No one would suggest either Sutton brother showed any bias, but nevertheless the pressure must have been immense on the video official in particular; if he had awarded the score, the holders faced a very real threat of being eliminated and not reaching a major final for the first time since the 1954 World Cup.

No Australian – or Englishman, for that matter – should have been placed in that completely avoidable position of difficulty.

As it stands, heading into the final weekend of an absorbing competition, even Samoa – cruelly edged out 14-12 by New Zealand on Saturday having been defeated narrowly by England earlier – can reach the endgame in Wellington on November 15.

England now have to beat New Zealand – who defeated Australia in their opener – by at least 10 points in Dunedin on Saturday to confirm their final spot, Australia requiring a victory over Samoa and the possibility of chasing a points differential, too.

Hall, who has now scored five tries in his last four games against the Kangaroos, said: “I knew I’d got something on it but I wasn’t sure whether I grounded it or not so I didn’t want to make a big fuss about it because we wanted the ball back at least.

“After it got referred upstairs it was just cross your fingers and hope. Someone said that if it was Super League rules that would have been a try but we’re not in Super League are we?

“So we’ve got to win next week to get through into the final.

“We owe the Kiwis a bit from last year. I don’t want to bring it up too much, but there is a bit of vengeance there.”

He was referring to another agonising late defeat, when New Zealand scored with just 20 seconds remaining of the 2013 World Cup semi-final to deny them a place in that showpiece. His coach Steve McNamara thought it was a try and expressed his “disappointment”. He should be applauded, though, for his bold, surprise decision to leave out Castleford Tigers captain Michael Shenton and hand 21-year-old Dan Sarginson a debut as the Wigan centre played superbly, a highlight being a marvellous flick pass to furnish Hall with their second try in the first half.

Australia opened the scoring through Michael Jennings’s try but Hall’s brilliant 50m break led to Leeds colleague Kallum Watkins responding, Gareth Widdop converting both for a 12-4 interval lead. It should have been more.

England’s ball control was much better than against Samoa – it was the 31st minute before James Graham dropped a pass – and with Matty Smith kicking well and Daryl Clark constantly sniping, they were impressive.

However, they became more conservative and Australia responded with a try for lively debutant Ben Hunt before Inglis give them the lead in the 63rd minute, Cameron Smith converting twice.

Sean O’Loughlin (trip) and Farrell (chicken-wing tackle) were both put on report along with Australia’s Greg Bird (dangerous lift) and could all yet be handed bans.

Australia: Inglis, Mata’utia, Walker, Jennings, Mansour; Cherry-Evans, Cronk; Woods, Smith, Thaiday, Scott, Bird, Parker. Substitutes: Cordner, Hunt, Klemmer, Papalii.

England: S Tomkins; Charnley, Watkins, Sarginson, Hall; Widdop, Smith; Graham, Hodgson, G Burgess, Farrell, J Tomkins, O’Loughlin. Substitutes: Clark, T Burgess, Ferres, Hill.

Referee: G Sutton (Australia)